Yet another reason the Surface Mini was reportedly delayed

15,000 - 20,000 Surface Minis now gathering dust

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Microsoft may have decided to scrap the anticipated announcement of a Surface Mini tablet at its New York event earlier this week but according to reports, that doesn't mean the smaller sibling is dead in the water.

Neowin brings word that the '11th hour' decision to drop the Surface Mini from the Surface Pro 3 launch event came down to the fears it didn't have a decent enough value proposition.

The report claims Microsoft may be waiting until the fully touch-enabled version of Microsoft Office, codenamed Gemini, arrives later this year before releasing the Surface Mini into the wild.

That means the 15,000 - 20,000 units Microsoft is said to have taken from the production line will be gathering dust until it can put a designed-for-touch Office on them out-of-the-box.

Focus on the Pro

An Office update would potentially be the "winning ingredient" TechRadar speculated over, following the Surface Pro 3 event May 20.

However, as a result of the Surface Mini's unexpected absence, Microsoft was able to place all of its focus on the new Surface Pro 3, released just nine months after the Surface Pro 2.

The firm hopes this bigger, thinner and lighter device will replace users' laptops with a 12-inch, 2160 x 1440 screen, better processing power and slim form factor.

The device can be configured with a Intel i7 Core processor, up to 512GB of storage and 8GB of RAM. It also boasts an improved Touch Cover, two 5-megapixel cameras and nine hours of battery life.